As part of Keeping Education Public week, the APUO is co-sponsoring events on campus from March 6 to March 10, 2017.Seven associations representing students, faculty and staff at the University of Ottawa come together to discuss major issues facing Canadian universities today.Several events will be taking place with a common thread drawing back to the austerity budgeting measures that have been implemented at the University of Ottawa and which are reflective of the current context of postsecondary education across North America.This takes place following threats of massive budget cuts of 4 to 8% at the University of Ottawa, including $2 million in cuts to library acquisitions which were narrowly avoided, and a freeze on university support staff, all of which undermine the quality of education for students, and the working conditions of faculty and staff throughout the university.

Monday March 6th, the APUO will be hosting a roundtable discussion on the commercialization of academic publishing. As an increasing number of academic societies sign publishing agreements with the “Big 5”, these large multinational publishing houses drive industry trends that increase the cost of research and access to publishing, which adversely affects libraries that struggle to maintain their collections due to government defunding and austerity budgeting practices.

Wednesday March 8th, in conjunction with International Women’s Day (IWD), the campus associations will be hosting a game of Cards Against University at Café Nostalgica from 2 to 4pm. The game features content specific to the university community and uOttawa in particular, with a gendered focus on some of the card content for IWD. Food will be served.

Thursday March 9th, at 11:30AM, the Association of Part-Time Professors of the University of Ottawa (APTPUO) will be screening Starving the Beast, to be shown at Desmarais Hall, room 12102 (55, Laurier street). The documentary examines the last 35 years of systemic defunding of universities and market-driven reform that has been commonplace in the United States, and which parallels with ideologies around higher education in Canada. Pizza and beverages will be serve.

As part of Keeping Education Public Week, APUO will be hosting a roundtable on Monday March 6th, 2017 from 12-12:50pm at Tabaret 083.

The commercialization of academic research has been the subject of intense debate within scientific communities. In the past few years, an increasing number of academic societies have signed publishing agreements with large publishing houses such as the “Big 5”: Reed-Elsevier, Wiley, Routledge-Taylor and Francis, SAGE and Springer. On the one hand, these companies have a global reach that brings research communities closer together. On the other hand, they have been criticized for their pricing practices and high profit margins, which drive up the price of information and make academic publishing less accessible to students and faculty. As a result of these industry trends, university libraries, such as our uOttawa library, have found it increasingly difficult to maintain their collections. In this roundtable, speakers from the University of Ottawa will share their experiences and debate alternatives.

COME CHAT WITH US!
Where: TBT 083, University of Ottawa
When: Monday, March 6th, 2017 at noon – lunch will be served.

Please note that the University of Ottawa has not responded to our invitation to send a delegate to our budget debate on January 25th, 2017.

Therefore, we have modified the format of the event to be a presentation of the APUO’s perspective on the 2017-2018 budget followed by a question and discussion period.

While we regret that the employer has declined the opportunity to engage in this dialogue with us, we hope that you will attend and bring your questions, so that we may hear your concerns and suggestions and bring them to the attention of the employer in other forums.

Where: DMS 12102, 55 Laurier, University of OttawaWhen: Wednesday January 25, 12 noon-12:50pm
A light lunch will be served, please RSVP to help us to plan accordingly.

This message was sent to APUO members on Januay 19, 2017. To see the original message click here.

APUO is proud to support the participation of its members at the CAUT Equity conference that will take place on February 24-25, 2017 in Toronto. The APUO Executive committee will cover the expenses for registration, accommodations and transportation for two participants. The participants will be expected to participate in the conference in its entirety and to provide receipts for each expense.

In offering this funding, APUO wishes to build its members’ capacity on equity issues. It is expected that members who wish to participate in the conference are doing so with the intention of eventually being directly engaged with the Association (for example: join the Equity Committee, the Collective Bargaining Committee, the Executive Committee, or the Board of Directors).

Please take a look at the CAUT webpage for more details about the conference.

This message was sent to APUO members on January 18, 2017. To see the original message click here.

The University of Ottawa has proposed across the board cuts, including extensive cuts to the library. In response the APUO will be conducting an analysis of university’s finances and inviting the employer to a debate on the 2017-2018 budget on the following question:

“Is the proposed budget consistent with the University of Ottawa’s academic mandate?”

Where: DMS 12102, 55 Laurier, University of OttawaWhen: Wednesday January 25, 12 noon-12:50pm
A light lunch will be served, please RSVP to help us to plan accordingly.

Please come prepared with questions for either side. We have invited each side to present their views on the proposed budget. A question period will follow the opening arguments and rebuttals on each side.

This message was sent to APUO members on January 11, 2017. To see the original message click here.

Workshop: “Student-to-faculty ratios: More than just bums in seats”
Similar to a cheap airline, it sometimes seems like the university administration does not care about the quality of the ride or the destination, only the number of seats sold. This workshop invites students and faculty to participate in this interactive, bilingual workshop about the problems with rising student-tofaculty ratios. Event sponsored by GSAED, CUPE 2626 and APUO.
Where: DMS 12110
When: Monday, February 24th, 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Workshop: “Perish Citation Counts, Publish What Matters” by Professor André Vellino (School of Information Studies, University of Ottawa)
This workshop aims to explain what scholarly performance metrics such as h-Index really measure, why they need to be interpreted with caution, and their alternatives. Lunch will be provided. Event sponsored by APUO.
Where: DMS 12110
When: Tuesday, February 25th, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Update Monday February 24th, 8:30 am: Due to unforeseen circumstances, the public lecture that was scheduled Wednesday February 26th in the evening by Gordon Lafer has been cancelled. The event will be rescheduled but a new date has yet to been arranged. The APUO apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Public lecture: “Austerity, the Attack on Public Employees, and the Corporatization of Education” by Gordon Lafer (Associate Professor, Labor Education and Research Center, University of Oregon)
This workshop will discuss the transformation of education, posing questions such as does it matter if students are taught by a person or a computer? Does it matter if education is under the control of some democratically-elected body? A reception will follow. Event sponsored by APUO.
Where: DMS 12102
When: Wednesday, February 26th, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Panel: “Public Education for the Public Good” and Social
Anaïs Elboujaini: Graduate Student Rep on the uOttawa Board of Governors
Vanessa Hunt: Deputy Chairperson, Canadian Federation of Students
Erika Shaker: Director Education Project, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Panel guests will present on the need to fight neo-liberal attacks on the fundamental direction of public education and research. A social will take place after the panel. Event sponsored by GSAED and APTPUO.
Where: Cafe Nostalgica
When: Thursday, February 27th, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Film Screening: Carré rouge sur fond noirThis event will be exclusively in French
This film takes us into the heart of the 2012 student crisis to experience from the inside one of the most important social movements in Quebec history.
Event sponsored by GSAED and SFUO.
Where: Grad House (GSD 307)
When: Friday, February 28th, 5:30pm